Using Email to Manage Conversations

Email is an important part of my communications, and I am very happy with the ability to receive Canvas notifications via email. Whether questions from students, comments attached to assignment submissions, or replies to discussions, it makes my use of Canvas more efficient. The inclusion of the course in the subject line means I can easily tell which emails are Canvas notifications and therefore more worthy of attention (sorry, co-workers).

For Conversations in Canvas, I now have two places to view new messages: My email inbox and the Inbox page in Canvas. Fortunately, replying to Conversations messages via email also takes care of marking those messages as read within Canvas.

In the embedded video I demonstrate the following:

Confirming that Conversations is set up for an immediate email notification.

Replying via email to the Conversations notification.

Seeing that the Conversations message is marked as read inside Canvas.

In the few months that I have been teaching with Canvas I find this to be an effective way of responding to Conversations messages. However, I have also found myself changing the rhythm of how I email, since I appreciate it when that Inbox icon does not indicate any unread messages. I am much more interested in having the last word of a conversation that I have been in the past.